Yeah, I am EXTREMELY interested in this since I heard the rumor. I've been putting off ordering a lee classic cast .50bmg reloader since it is priced VERY cheap. I'm curious how much the dillon will cost....hopefully it'll be priced cheaper than the other ones on the market....

From what I have heard, the press will be a manually indexed multi die unit and it will NOT be cheap. The Lee, Hornady and RCBS units are single stage, one die, one operation at a time presses. The Dillon press will be more like the Holllywood press. The trouble with the Hollywood press is that it takes SEVERAL months from the time you buy it to actualy get it. I am pretty sure the Dillon press will be in the 1K price range but I do not know any solid information. Also from what I can gather, we might see this press in 09 but it might very easily be 2010 as well.

So, to summerize, the Dillon will not be in competetion with the single stage presses(Lee, RCBS, Hornady) and will also not be a 'full auto' unit like Dillon's other presses. It will be more like the Hollywood press.

IF the Dillon press actually happens, it just might put Joe at Hollywood out of business. I can't say this will make me sad as I have had a not pleasant business transaction with Hollywood and I have heard to many other unpleasant stories that leade me to believe that Joe is a poor businessman. He is the opposite of Dillon in that customer satisfaction is not a top priority.

I saw it a few months back, it's pretty cool to say the least. Essentially it's a 550 but scaled up / industrial sized for 50 BMG.

The product i saw pics of from the SHOT show was somewhat differnet than what i had seen at one time. I suspect they have made changes to it since the time i saw it.

On of my initial conversations with someone at Dillon (who will remain nameless) early last year, indicated that they it was likely going to be $800 or so. However since the metals markets have gone yo yo, and R&D costs / parts for the beast have gone up i suspect we might be looking at the high $900's.

From what i saw it's not a horrible machine, but in my personal opinion it has some shortcomings as well. From the version i saw, you did not have the ability to remove the primer tool to install a swager, which is key if you reload suruplus brass like i do. I am unsure what they are going to do to handle the swaging, but i'd love to hear about it as well. C4H makes a nice tool, but you gotta move your brass to a single stage, which is always time consuming. Not to mention with the C4 you rely on the metal stregnth around the case lips on the back, if you use too much force you will damage the case and trash it. I hope they come out with something like thier super swager, but for 50! That would rock.

Primers on the version i saw had to be inserted one by one in the primer tool, so it's not entirely progressive since you have to touch each primer one by one, but they may change that before this hits the market.

As for trimming, again i'm not sure what they are going to do. I could not wait any longer for something to trim my BMG cases with, so i popped for the Giraud in a 50 BMG, as well as other calibers i handload. So far i love it, and have not even thought of looking back.